Sewing-machine work-clamp.



W. L. BARRON.

SEWING MACHINE WORK CLAMP.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3. 1914.

2. WIN/E8858. INVENTOR n sans PATENT nine.

WILLIAM L. BARRON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE SINGER MANUFAC- TURING COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

SEWING-MACHINE WORK-CLAMP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, ioic.

Application filed June 3, 1914. Serial No. 842,695.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM L. BARRON, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing- Machine Work-Clamps, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention has for its primary object to provide convenient and effective means for stitching to a fabric the separable sections of a snap-fastener, in such manner that the edges thereof subjected to the strain in the forcible disengagement of the sections will remain in contact with the face of the fabric and thus prevent excessive strain upon the main attaching stitches within the circumference of the section.

It is preferably embodied in a workclamp comprising a work-supporting plate and a fastener-holding foot sustained in laterally fixed relation therewith, the workholder being adapted to receive jogging movements crosswise and lengthwise of a sewing machine by means of which attaching stitches are applied for securing the fastener section held by said jaws to a fabric sustained by the work-supporting plate The stitch-forming and jogging means are preferably such as those disclosed in the United States patent to J. J. Sullivan No. 777,564, of December 13, 1904 andin my Patent No. 1,151,535, granted August 24, 1915. The fastener-holding foot is constructed with opposed jaws having laterally grooved opposed edges and a stop' with a laterally grooved edge in angular relation with said grooved edges of the jaws and disposed out of alinement with and directed intermediate said jaws. A rectilinearly extending needle-space is provided intermediate said jaws and stop and is arranged transversely to the grooved edges of said jaws and substantially parallel with the grooved edge of said stop. The jaws extend substantially equi-distantly from the diameter of the fastener-disk or of a circle inscribed Within the grooved edges of said jaws and the stop.

In connection with flat-button sewers, it is unnecessary to provide needle-clearance spaces at opposite sides of the jaws and extending beyond their grooved edges, as in the present construction, because it has been customary heretofore to apply the attachin stitches entirely within the circumference o the button; but in order to apply anchoring stitches extending oppositely over the edges of the fastenerdisk, for purposes set forth in my application Serial No. 842,696 filed simultaneously herewith, the jaws of the present fastener-holder are made sufficiently narrow to afiord such needle-clearance space thereby permitting the needle to descend upon opposite sides of-the jaws beyond the periphery of the button.

Heretofore it has been customary to make the jaws of sufficient width to give their grooved extremities a segmental form so as to embrace a substantial portion of the periphery of the button and thereby confine the same against lateral displacement in a stitching operation. According to the present construction the aws are not sufficiently wide to afford such restraining means to prevent edgewise dislodgment of the fastener-disk, and a detent-spring is therefore secured to the stop for the inner edge of the fastener-disk and provided at its free extremity with an upturned lip normally retracted from but adapted for engagement with the inner side of a peripheral bead upon the lower face of the fastener-disk, whereby the lowering of the foot upon the fabric serves to press said detainer into operative engagement with the disk for locking it against edgewise dislodgment during the stitching operation.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a sewing machine embodying the present improvements with the bracket-arm represented partly in dotted lines, and Fig. 2 is a bottom plan of the bed-plate and the mechanism beneath the same. Fig. 3 is a plan of the fastenerholdin foot sustaining a fastener-disk secured )y a series of primary attaching stitches and anchoring stitches to a portion of fabric beneath the same. Fig. 4 is a front end view of the fastener-holding foot, and Fig. 5 is a side view of one of the fastenergripping jaws and the stop with the detentspring attached thcreto,tho stop being shown in section. Fig. 6 is an edge view, partly in transverse section, of one of the separable parts of a garment-fastener which the present improvement is designed to accommodate.

The sewing machine is shown constructed with a bed-plate 1 and overhanging bracketarm 2 in which is journaled the rectilinearly reciprocating needle-bar 3 carrying the needle 4 cooperating in practice with an oscillating shuttle in the production of lockstitches.

The laterally and longitudinally jogging work-holder is constructed with a frame having the slide-bar 5 and overhanging bracket-arm 6 with head 7 in which is journaled for vertical movement the flat presser-bar 8 normally pressed downwardly by means-of the spring-arm 9. To the reduced forward end of the slide-bar 5 is seured the work-supporting plate 10.

The fastener-holding foot comprises a pair of spring-closed jaw-levers 11 and an intermediate stop-arm 12 extending forwardly and downwardly from the supporting plate 13 upon which they may be movably mounted substantially as the corresponding members of the work-holder forming the subject of my Patent No. 1,069,053, of July 29, 1913, the plate 13 being secured to the resser-bar 8, in the present instance, and adapted to be pressed upon the fabric sustained by the Work-supporting plate 10 by means of the spring 9.

The laterally yielding levers 11 are formed near their extremities with thelateral jaws 14 provided in their adjacent edges with the notches or grooves 15 disposed parallel with their lower faces and adapted to receive the rim of a fastenersection a. These jaws are made very narrow in comparison with the diameter of the fastener and extend substantially equi-dis tantly upon opposite sides of a diameter of such fastener retained in stitching position thereby. The levers 11 are formed at 0pposite sides of the jaws with clearance recesses 16 and 17.

The forward end 18 of the stop-arm 12 is shown formed at right angles with the grooved edges of the jaws 14 and has therein the segmental V-shaped groove 19 affording a seat for the fastener-section rim; and intermediate the grooved end of the stoparm and the adjacent sides of the jaws 14 a rectilinearly extending needle-space is provided transverse to the grooved edges of the jaws, so as to permit the laying of a continuous line of fastening and anchoring stitches extending through the threadapertures of the fastener-section upon one side of the latter and laterally beyond the grooved faces of said jaws, as represented particularly in Fig. 3, wherein the usual attaching stitches s are applied through the thread-holes Z) of the section and the anchor ing stitches t in alinement with the lateral attaching stitches pass through the threadholes I) and over the opposite edges of the fastener-section. The clearance recesses at the opposite sides of the jaws are provided not only for clearance in,the laying of the parallel line of attaching and anchoring stitches, but to afford ample room for the fingers of the operator in inserting the fastener-sections in the holding foot.

As the jaws 14 are not sufliciently wide for a segmentalformation of their fastenersection receiving grooves so as to confine the fastener against edgewise displacement relatively to the stop element 18, it is desirable to provide some means to forcibly retain the' section in position during the stitching operation. To this end, the stoparm 12 has secured thereto by means of the screw 20 the blade 21 of a flat detainerspring of which the free end is normally spaced slightly below the bottom of the stop and is formed with an upturned lip 22 adapted to enter a notch 23 in the bottom of the stop for engagement with the inner side of the beaded rim a of the fastenersection a, as indicated in dotted-lines in Fig. 5 and in full lines in Fig. 6, when the fastener-holding foot is depressed upon the work sustained by the holder-plate 10 for a stitching operation. As will be observed by reference more particularly to Fig. 5, the fastener-detainer lip has an operative face upon the side thereof adjacent the fastenerengaging faces 19 of the stop 18, and therefore acts in opposition to the stop in grippiu the fastener and securely holding it against the same.

For the purposes of the present improvement, it is immaterial whether the needle or the work-holder perform the lateral jogging movements for the laying of the stitches as represented in Fig. 3 of the drawings, or whether such movements are performed partly by the one and partly by the other, by means which are well known in the art. these movements are imparted to the holderframe 5 6 by means of the rotary cycle-cam 24 provided in opposite faces with the camgrooves 25 and 26 entered by the roller studs 27 and 28 which are carried respectively by the rock-levers 29 and 30.

The rock-lever 29 is shown extending through a slot 31 in the machine bed-plate and connected at its lower end by means of the link 32 with one arm of a bellcranlc lever 33 having its other arm connected by the link 34 with a slide-member 35 attached to the slide-bar 5, from which the workholder derives its sidewise jogging movements relatively to the needle 4. The laterally channeled depending arm of the rocklever 30 embraces the post 36 rising from As represented in the drawings,

the rearward end of the slide-bar 5 and having adjustably mounted thereon the block 37 affording a connection between the samev and the walls of the channel in the rock-lever arm, by means of which the endwise jogging movements are imparted to the work-holder.

In the use'of the machine as thus fitted, the fastener-holding foot is first lifted above the work-supporting plate to expose the fastener-gripping jaws and stop for convenient introduction of the fastener-section, the detainer 21 thereby assuming retracted position, as represented in full lines in Fig. 5, after which the section a is introduced, as represented in dotted lines in said figure. The fabric having been inserted between the plate 10 and the fastener-holder, the latter is allowed to descend thereon under the action of the spring 9, thereby pressing the free end 22 of the spring-detainer into engagement with the beaded rim of the fastenersection. The stitch-forming and workholder jogging mechanisms being new set in motion, the stitching proceeds. The form of the cam-grooves 25 and 26 will of course determine the manner in which the stitches are laid. In the operation of the machine as actually constructed, a series of four attaching stitches s is first laid within the periphery of the fastener-section by successive penetration of the needle through the several thread-apertures b, the needle then steps over the edge of the section from the initial thread-aperture to form the first anchoring stitch t and thence backwardly and across the edge of the section to the second aperture and over the opposite edge of the section from which it returns to 'the second aperture. It then advances to the third aperture and across the edge of the section in a direc'tionparallel with the other anchoring stitches, after which it traverses the third and fourth apertures and steps over the edge of the section and thence returns to the fourth hole through which it makes several descents to effect the tying of the upper and lower threads preparatory to the severing of the latter at the completion of the stitching operation.

In practice the levers 11 and stop-arm 12 have the usual connection by which they are simultaneously adjustable for centering buttons or disks of different sizes in fixed relation to the needle, and the jaws 14 are adapted to yield laterally with their sustaining levers so as to accommodate themselves to the rims of the fastener-sections.

The interengaging fastener-sections are commonly made with disk-bodies having beaded rims of substantially the same diameter, and thus both are readily accommodated by the holding foot herein shown 7 and described. In the drawings, only one of these sections is shown, the same being formed with the central cavity 0 disposed upon the same side of the disk-body as the beaded rim (1 in which is housed the segmental body of the snap-spring d whose bent ends enter the cavity a laterally through suitable apertures and have yielding parallel portions adapted for engagement with-the necked convex locking portion of the interengaging fastening section.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what I claim herein is l. A work-holder comprising a work-support-ing plate and a fastener-holding foot sustained in laterally fixed relation therewith and formed with a pair of jaws having laterally grooved opposed edges and a stop with laterally grooved edge in angular relation with said grooved edges and disposed out of alinernent with and directed intermediate said jaws, with a rectilinearly extending ncedle-space disposed intermediate said jaws and stop and arranged transversely to the grooved edges of said jaws and substantially parallel with the grooved edge of said stop.

holding foot provided with opposed jaws for gripping the edges of a fastener-disk and 2. A, work-holder comprising a fastenerwith a stop for positioning the same relatively to said jaws, and an element having a fastener-engaging face acting in opposition to said stop for locking said disk in position within said jaws during a stitching operation.

3. A work-holder comprising a fastener holding foot provided with opposed jaws for gripping the edges of a fastenendisk and with a stop for positioning the same relatively to said jaws, and a yielding detainer having a fastener-engaging face acting in opposition to said stop and movable transversely of the planein which the fastener disk is gripped by said jaws and adaptedto engage said disk and to restrain it against dislodgment in said aws during a stitching operation.

4. A work-holder comprising a fastenerholding foot provided with opposed jaws for gripping the edges of a fastener-disk and with a stop for positioning the same relatively to said jaws, and a yielding detainer normally retracted from but adapted for engagement with a fastener-disk gripped between said jaws and adapted to engage said disk when the jaws are pressed upon the work for a stitching operation.

5. A work-holder comprising a fastenerholding foot provided with opposed jaws having grooved adjacent edges for gripping the beaded edge of a fastener-disk and with a stop for positioning the same relatively to said aws, and a detent-spring provided with a lip forengagement with the head of the fastener-disk when pressed upon the fabric for a stitching operation but normally maintained retracted therefrom.

6. A work-holder comprising a fastener- 3 holding foot provided with opposed jaws having grooved adjacent edges for gripping the beaded edge of a fastener-disk and with a stop for positioning the same relatively to said jaws, and a detent-spring sustained by 10 said stop and provided with a lip for engagement with the bead of the fastener-disk when pressed upon the fabric for a stitching operation but normally maintained retracted therefrom.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my 15 name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM L. BARRON.

Witnesses HENRY J. MILLER, HENRY A. KORNEMA'NN, Jr. 

